Colchester Zoo Colchester Zoo news 2016

I visited Colchester Zoo last week and did the keeper for the day experience visiting sea lions, penguins, lemurs, orangutan and spider monkey. It was brilliant !

I am curious about the chimp group. They chimps all seemed to be ?? mmmm I don't want to say poor condition as I am not a vet or have much experience with chimps but most of them were not exactly pictures of health. Are they all old? What is the story of the brown chimp?

Otherwise the zoo is very good I can see why many would rate as 2nd to Chester in the UK and its privately owned, not something they seem to be pushing to promote.
 
zooman said:
I am curious about the chimp group. They chimps all seemed to be ?? mmmm I don't want to say poor condition as I am not a vet or have much experience with chimps but most of them were not exactly pictures of health. Are they all old? What is the story of the brown chimp?
Click to expand...

Males-

Pippin- Age 30
Tombe- Age 20
Tumba- Age 11

Females

Billy Joe- aprrox. Age 41
Talia- Age 7
Tekita- Age 20
Tara- Age 31
Kora- Age 16

Pippin's mother, Coco at Twycross is a chocolate chimp and as Tumba (Colchester's chocolate chimp) is Pippin's son must have the gene to give him the coloration.
 
Does anybody know how many mandrills there are in the group, and what genders they are roughly? All I know is that two years ago it was 21, and that they received a new male this year.
 
ShonenJake13 said:
Does anybody know how many mandrills there are in the group, and what genders they are roughly? All I know is that two years ago it was 21, and that they received a new male this year.
Click to expand...

At a guess there are (usually) around 23-5, and I would think approximately 50:50 sex ratio. My last visit I saw 5-6 adult males but they don't look quite 'right' (very slim) and I presume they have all been castrated bar the new unrelated breeder.
 
ShonenJake13 said:
Wow! Are there any drill groups of such a size in Europe?!
Click to expand...

Nowhere near as many, no - to my knowledge the largest groups are at Tierpark Hellabrunn, Dvur Kralowe and Osnabruck, all of which hold around 7 individuals total.
 
TeaLovingDave said:
Nowhere near as many, no - to my knowledge the largest groups are at Tierpark Hellabrunn, Dvur Kralowe and Osnabruck, all of which hold around 7 individuals total.
Click to expand...

Gosh, that really is a size difference! Do you reckon there may ever be an attempt to make a bigger group?
 
ShonenJake13 said:
Gosh, that really is a size difference! Do you reckon there may ever be an attempt to make a bigger group?
Click to expand...

I mentioned somewhere else recently- there's no reason Drills couldn't be kept in larger groups like Mandrills, but the current stock is so much smaller, leading to a slower increase. Also, as groups do increase, there is a demand from would- be new holders who hive off any excess animals to form new groups (e.g. Port Lympne females to Munich not so long ago) so the groups are prevented from expanding too rapidly. Without such movements of animals, Pandrillus in Africa have a group of 100.

It would be good to see larger groups building up in our zoos too- with only (is it) 2000 or so recently estimated in the wild, they need a larger reserve zoo population.
 
Pertinax said:
I mentioned somewhere else recently- there's no reason Drills couldn't be kept in larger groups like Mandrills, but the current stock is so much smaller, leading to a slower increase. Also, as groups do increase, there is a demand from would- be new holders who hive off any excess animals to form new groups (e.g. Port Lympne females to Munich not so long ago) so the groups are prevented from expanding too rapidly. Without such movements of animals, Pandrillus in Africa have a group of 100.

It would be good to see larger groups building up in our zoos too- with only (is it) 2000 or so recently estimated in the wild, they need a larger reserve zoo population.
Click to expand...

With such rare animals there are two good reasons for keeping them in smaller groups. If a group is lost, from a natural disaster (such as a flood) or an outbreak of disease or by escaping from the zoo - there is less damage to the total population (like eggs in baskets ;)). It is also important to maintain the genetic diversity in the zoo population by allowing as many males to breed as possible. This means restricting the number of females in each group and replacing the breeding males every few years.

Alan
 
gentle lemur said:
It is also important to maintain the genetic diversity in the zoo population by allowing as many males to breed as possible. This means restricting the number of females in each group and replacing the breeding males every few years.

Alan
Click to expand...

Yes of course I do agree with all that. I was going to say that a greater number of small groups is as good as a fewer larger groups, though in fact it is actually preferable. But at the same time I would like to see the Zoo population grow to a size where large(r) groups could, in many cases, become the norm.
 
I went for a visit today, although the weather wasn't great. Not a great deal seems to have changed since my last visit:

- The road train is now closed; it looks as if part of the old platform is going to be torn up, possibly as an extension to the bush dog enclosure being built there
- Yellow-margined box turtles are no longer signposted in the Iguana Forest exhibit
- Possibly saw some courtship behaviour between the Andean condors, although I'm not sure if they are old enough to breed yet
- Several enclosures are currently closed for 'essential maintenance' including the vulture aviary by the African paddock (the vultures are off-show), the wolves and the koi carp
- New species signs placed in the butterfly walk-through now show that there are in fact two species of butterfly present - the owl butterfly Caligo memnon and the forest giant owl butterfly Caligo eurilochus, although it gives no indication on how you tell the two species apart
 
Although not really news per se, the Colchester Zoo 2016 Autumn Magazine has confirmed that bush dogs will be moving into the new enclosure by the train station in 2017. I have attached the magazine here (the information regarding bush dogs is on page 9): Colchester Zoo Autumn Magazine 2016
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top